Black Market Merchant

Jackson was completely flabbergasted at Lisa's statement. "What? Work for you? I am a Mad Dog gangster and I listen to no one, but Martinez." Even Jerry's jaw had dropped nearly to the floor upon hearing her absurd statement.

"I understand that." Lisa replied giving him an unbothered shrug. "What I am trying to get at is that I understand that you deal with a lot of the financing for the gang. I need that experience to help me with, how to say this, a business proposal."

Jackson gave a quick glance at Jerry. Jerry nervously took a step back and motioned that he had no idea what Lisa was going on about. Jackson sighed visibly, then he closed the door and turned to face Lisa. His mind was racing as he tried to understand this woman before him. Most Match Fighters were dumb brutes that only enjoyed fighting and violence. This was clearly not going to be the case with this young woman.

He had seen her fight before. She was good, too good. He would have to see her fight a few more times to understand her weak points and exploit them with better Fighters. However, her bet had thrown him off guard. “Work for her? What could this nobody have to offer me?”

"What work are you talking about? I do have financial work history, but I doubt you have anything worth my time." Jackson said flatly.

"Power." Lisa replied. "I can give you and the towns people power."

Jackson scoffed and turned away from Lisa. He already had a strong position in the gang; this random woman wouldn't possibly have anything to offer him. "Get real! I don't have the time to waste talking about something so imaginary. The only powerful one here is Martinez. I think I have indulged you enough."

"For now." Lisa said giving a shrug. From the way he had phrased his reply it seemed he misunderstood her, but the opportunity she had was botched. He wasn't going to listen to her. Yet she couldn’t resist giving one last remark at him, "Also, you better bet on me or you are going to lose."

Jackson shook his head dismissively as he opened the door and quickly left the room. It seemed she wasn't going to get through to him today. Taking over a gang wasn't going to be easygoing. Though she expected as much, it would have been nice to find opportunity to negotiate.

"Ah, Miss Queen?" Jerry finally stammered, breaking the silence that followed Jackson’s leave from the room. "If you're still going to perform in the fight, we should get going."

Lisa turned to look coldly at the little thin man. Jerry reacted by stepped sheepishly towards the door. The look she had right now seemed to be looking right through him, like he wasn't even worth her time. As a cowardly man, he could tell when someone dangerous wasn't in a good mood.

"Yes, I do." Lisa said calmly, though her stern grey eyes betrayed her. "Lead the way."

Jerry nodded vigorously and turned to leave the office. Lisa was about to follow when the bald guard stuck out a hand to stop her. She glared at him, but he showed no sign of fear.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you, Miss Queen." The guard grunted while tapping a finger on his gun slung over his shoulder. "Closely."

He then lowered his hand to let her by. Lisa smirked at him and walked past him airily. Threats like that were so typical of men thinking they are tough, just because they have a weapon doesn't make it true. Leaving them behind, Jerry lead the way back down the hallway to a door leading into a locker room.

"You can leave whatever you are not using in the fight here. Don't worry, we have no interest in stealing your personal possessions." Jerry added reassuringly. Then he hurriedly left the room leaving Lisa to think.

"Well, that could have gone better." Lisa sighed to herself.

Lisa's sudden idea didn't pan out as she had intended. The plan was to convince a top member of the gang to side with her. Jackson was the only one she knew and figured that he would be the greedy type, based on his clothing choice. Of course, this didn't have to work the first time she asked. If need be, she would need to prove that she was worth being a leader to him.

However, Jackson appeared to be totally loyal to Martinez. He didn't even seem all that interested in her poor choice of wording. Sure, power could have been understood as power over others. Even though she meant electrical power, she had botched that chance.

"It would have been nice to get him to help me get that dam running right. But geez, I suck with explanations on the fly." Lisa complained to herself.

Lisa then put down her coffin carefully and leaned it behind a locker. This way if someone looked inside the room from the door, it would appear empty. She also took off her leather jacket and hung it inside a nearby locker. She did, however, keep her Yankees hat on and tucked her collapsing sword into the back pocket of her jeans. The swords handle housed the entirety of the blade and the handle’s total length was nearly thirty centimeters. So, it fit easily in the pocket without being an inconvenience to her movements. It was really hard for anyone to imagine that in that small sword handle was a blade reaching up to three meters!

Leaving the locker room, Lisa headed straight for the Arena. Jerry was unwillingly waiting at the end of the hallway for her. Motioning her to follow him with one hand, he led her to an area roped off from the stands nearby. There were two benches here and they sat down separately.

"So, what now?" Lisa asked Jerry, while looking around the large room.

"We just need to wait for the crowds to fill into the stands. While you were in the locker room the announcement for the fight was announced. It shouldn't be long now." Jerry answered then he pointed towards the first hallway they had into come from. "See, they have already started to arrive."

Sure enough, there were already thirty or so people filling into the stands to get a good spot. It seemed that these fights were quite popular. Especially if it caused people to put everything on hold and come here so immediately for an unscheduled fight. It seemed entertainment was rather scarce here in town or that the rich were battle thirsty.

…

When Jackson closed the door to his office, leaving Lisa behind, he walked agitatedly down the small hallway that was leading further into the arena.

"How could she presume that I would possibly consider working for her? She is far too cocky. I need to knock her down a peg. Then she'll understand that I should be the boss not her." Jackson grumbled as he walked towards a wide green doorway. Some words on a gold plate labeled the room as the: Work Out Room.

Jackson gave a heavy knock before he entered. Upon entering he was immediately hit with the foul smell of body odor. He grimaced and entered anyway. The work out room was a huge, well lit, square shaped room. Dozens of different kinds of equipment, weights and training devices were packed into this space and appeared to have been used frequently. Though at the moment there was only a few bulky men inside. He went up to the closest and largest man present.

"Hey, Owen I need to talk to you." Jackson called out to the man. The man was doing a bench press workout and was sweating profusely. Then Jackson noticed that the bar was bending under the pressure of the weights he had on it. How much weight it took to bend a solid metal bar, he had no clue.

Owen lifted the bar one last time to lock it into place on the weight rack and giving a heavy sigh, he sat up. His spotter handed him a towel and he mopped his bearded face while replying to Jackson. "Yo, boss man! What do you want?"

"You up for a fight? I have a new contender that needs to be broken. I was considering Dan to fight her, but she pissed me off. I want you to crush her." Jackson replied angrily.

"She?" Owen mused. "A woman Match Fighter? Not too many of those around here. What's her name?"

"She goes by Queen. I don't know her real name. She's from out of town, but I have seen her fight once. She's the real deal." Jackson replied sounding a bit annoyed.

"So, you want me to kill her or just make her submit?" Owen asked getting up from the bench. When he did, Owen stood a full head higher than Jackson. His shirtless bulky body glistened with sweat as he dabbed the towel on himself.

"I won't make her first technical fight be to the death, unless she wants it that way. So, no weapons for this fight." Jackson said.

"Fine by me. Close and personal, I like it." Owen replied giving a big grin. "When's the fight?"

"Now if you are interested." Jackson answered flatly.

"Alright then. I'm already warmed up anyway. Let's go!" Owen said brushing eagerly past Jackson.

Jackson patted at his clothes in an attempt to while off any potential sweat. These were some expensive clothes.

…

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome the Warehouse Arena!" A deep voiced announcer boomed into the microphone. The now halfway full arena burst into cheers and clapped in anticipation. There were still more people coming in, despite that the event was already starting.

"We have a special fight for you tonight." The announcer continued. "We have some fresh meat to introduce to you this very evening. Our first new female Match Fighter to come here in the last year, will be giving us a show of feminine power. With a current record of no official wins or losses, she is here to give us her debut. Give it up for the Queen!"

"That's your cue to go to the stage." Jerry hissed at Lisa while giving her a hand motion to hurry.

Lisa got up from her seat and a spotlight suddenly turned on, illuminating her presence. The crowd gave an enthusiastic cheer seeing her.

Then the announcer continued to speak as Lisa confidently approached. "And now for her opponent! You know this man to be a hulking monster in the ring. The crusher of bones and limbs. I present to you, Owen Wales!"

The crowd cheered even louder now. Apparently, Owen was quite popular. A light on the far side of the stage illuminated a man so huge, Lisa could see his head over the floor of the stage.

"With a record of nineteen official wins and three loses, Owen is sure to give us a show this afternoon! But let's not count out the new contender Queen. She looks as capable as ever." The announcer droned on and Lisa ignored the rest.

Coming up onto the stage, Owen slammed open the fence gate and entered with his arms spread out wide showing off his massive arms and chest. The onlooking crowd responded to this showboating with cheers of excitement.

Lisa rolled her eyes seeing his antics while coming towards the stage. Then giving a small bend she leapt up off the ground, over the stage fence and landed gracefully onto the stage. The height of the fence was at least five meters high! The crowd was momentarily stunned seeing her near impossible feat, but quickly irrupted with murmurs of surprises and cheer.

Lisa walked right up to Owen and they started to stair each other down. She only stood as tall as his collarbone, even though she herself was taller than two meters, but her show of a lack of fear enthralled the crowd even more. The referee overseeing the fight had to force his way in between them.

"Alright now, I am going to need you two to go to your corners for inspection. This is a no weapons fight this go around." The referee spoke loudly over the crowd’s noises.

"That's not a problem. I only had one on me." Lisa said pulling the folded sword from her jeans pocket while turning to her corner. She then stuck it through the fence and Jerry came up to take it.

The referee did his inspection of the fighters, then once satisfied. he stated the rules over a microphone for the audience. "This is a one on one only fight, with no weapons involved. The fight will end by either knockout, by my say so, or death. Any bets must be placed now or written before hand, understood?"

The two fighters nodded but didn't give any indications of placing any bets. They then took up a fighting stance. A few seconds later the bell rung. The fight had begun!